High School Football: Charter Oak dominates Chino Hills

COVINA - One game into the Sierra League season, it's quite obvious the league championship still goes through Charter Oak High School.

The Chargers erupted early against visiting Chino Hills on Friday night and never looked back in a 41-13 rout in the league opener for both teams.

"We're just putting all of our pieces together and coming together as a team," Chargers receiver Bryce Bobo said. "It's nothing that surprises me. When we come together as a team, we know what we can do."

Chino Hills (3-2-1, 0-1) entered the game with the high-flying offense, but Charter Oak's vaunted defense was having none of it. The Chargers(5-1,1-0) had held all five opponents prior to Friday to their season low in points and Chino Hills became the sixth.

That may not have come as a shock to some, but the Chargers' passing attack shredding the Huskies behind junior quarterback Kory Brown did. Brown threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns in a breakout performance. And when it wasn't Brown doing damage through the air, No. 2 quarterback Ross Barrera was.

Barrera, who often is used as the Chargers' change-of-pace quarterback because of his ability to run, fired touchdown passes of 55 and 38 yards.

"We've had a long tradition of great quarterbacks at Charter Oak, and I just wanted to carry that on," Brown said. "Obviously, I have an amazing set of athletes as receivers and Aaren Vaughns is an amazing running back. I thought we just played a complete game."

Charter Oak blew out Chino Hills 38-7 in Week 10 of last season to win the Sierra League championship in its second season in the league. The Huskies looked poised for revenge this season after faring better against Bishop Amat in a tie than Charter Oak did in a loss. The Huskies also had played Southland power Tesoro tough in a 24-14 loss.

But instead of the Huskies stealing the Sierra League thunder back from Charter Oak, Friday's game looked more like a continuation of last season.

The Chargers scored on their first drive when Vaughns plunged in from 3 yards out for a 7-0 lead. Chino Hills went three-and-out on its next possession and Charter Oak was up 14-0 moments later after Brown hit Bobo on a 34-yard touchdown. Bobo, who will play at the University of Colorado next season, finished with five receptions for 184 yards and three touchdowns.

Chino Hills got back in it for a moment after quarterback Matt Simko connected with Joseph Lara on a 25-yard touchdown pass. But Simko failed to draw the Huskies any closer as Charter Oak's defense teed off and pressured the senior all night.

"I just think that we had a poor performance tonight and that will never happen again, I guarantee it, because we're going to work on it in practice and remember this loss and never let it happen again," Simko said. "They had a good defense and they played very well tonight. We need to step our game up next week against Ayala."

Charter Oak led 27-6 at halftime. Simko offered brief hope of a Huskies rally when his 2-yard keeper cut the lead to 27-13. Charter Oak went right back to the air and Brown found Bobo on a 39-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-21 with 6:10 left in the third quarter.

"Every single time my name is brought up, Jack Austin's name is brought up," Bobo said of Boise St.-bound Chino Hills receiver Jack Austin. "They try to do a comparison on us, so I wanted to challenge myself and make the bigger plays."